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Wednesday, 25 February 2015

(vol 2) Chapter 07: “To catch a breath”

2015 WORD COUNT = 9403
words

Its two months into 2015 and things are going well. This time
last year I was just getting my head around blogging and trying to work out how
I was going to make my mark on the world. It was a topsy-turvy year with a lot
of stopping, starting, stopping and backtracking.

I’m feeling better about everything this year. My confidence
is growing, my writing is improving (I’ve been told) and I’m more focused and
determined with what I want to accomplish before Dec 31st.

THE EPISODIC FANTASY
THING

I’m only two episodes into FRACTURED DAWN
but I’m feeling really good about it as a project. I think it’s going to help
me side step that fear I have of tackling something bigger. With the episodic,
1500 word a fortnight structure, it gives me a little space between episodes to
think about where I want my draft to go next. Whether it’s expanding a scene past
its bare bone version, changing out characters that seem excess or just
creating an extra scene to fill in gaps, I can take it slow and build the story
deeper as I go.

I’ve got a wider story planned and I’d love to keep going
with it for a long time; like an ongoing soap in short story form. Who knows
what will happen down the line? As long as you people keep reading it I’ll keep
writing it. And, hopefully I can get enough momentum on the project to perhaps
bring the fortnight releases down to weekly.

FLASH! A-AH

It’s been another good weekend of Flash Fiction results.
Scratch that; it’s been awesome.

After some kind words by judge Deborah Foy for CHRIS AND MIKE vs THE LESSER-SPOTTED DRAGON it was over to Flash!
Friday where I picked up First Runner-Up for OXYGEN, the tale of an astronaut who accepts his depleting air supply
means he’ll never leave the moon alive. I’m extremely grateful for some very,
very nice comments by my fellow participants.

As if that wasn’t enough, my entry for Angry Hourglass titled
CLOSING TIME picked up First place.
That’s my third win of the year and I’m more than over the moon with joy.

And finally there was a fantastic coming together with some
fellow FlashDogs on Sunday.

I’ve struggled recently to find time on the weekends to get
stuck into the various contests and read/comment on other author’s stories. I
can’t tell you how bad I’ve felt seeing people leave kind words for my own
writings and not giving anything back.

That changed when I started to see rumblings on Saturday that
the posting quota for last Fridays contest had broken 900. This got people
excited and so I joked, saying that I hadn’t left any comments yet and that we
should aim for 1000.

I awoke on Sunday determined to give back to the Flash community
and read others work. When I opened the site my competitive streak perked up upon
seeing the comment count was at 969. That meant I only needed to leave a
minimum 31 comments. That wouldn’t be a problem, would it? My fantastic wife
and my extremely well behaved son gave my some space Sunday afternoon and I set
to work.

I tweeted a few updates every now and then and other FlashDogs
responded. I began to feel cheered on, lapping up the great comradery, as we as
a group closed in. Others were commenting too and, together, we raced towards
that 1000 finish line.

When Rebekah posted that we’d succeeded it felt like an earth
shattering, Guinness Record kind of moment. I wanted to reach through cyber
space and High-Five all the others.

And that’s it; a great week for my writing. Normal service
will resume next week as a whole slew of blog post ideas came to me on my journey
home from work.

If you haven’t had a chance to start reading FRACTURED DAWN then what are you
waiting for; head here
now. It’s awesome (I know, I’m biased).

And don’t forget, if you fancy exercising that wonderful
writing muscle of yours then why not head over to the various Flash Fiction
contest on offer, see what spills from your mind onto the page. Who knows, you
might even make some friends too.